FIGHTSTAR – BACK WITH A BRAND NEW SONG, ALREADY BEING PLAYED BY RADIO 1 AND VIDEO ON MOST PLAYLISTS!  CURRENTLY ON UK TOUR – LONDON DATE THIS SATURDAY 31ST AT SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE (SOLD OUT) .

New Single “A City On Fire” to be released on 7th December 2009 on Search & Destroy Records

[Cat No. SADCDS017]

After a summer full of festival appearances including Radio 1’s Big Weekend, Download, Reading & Leeds and T4 OnThe Beach, FIGHTSTAR returned to the studio to record 5 new tracks with producer Carl Bown.   One of those tracks ‘A City On Fire’ is due to be released as a single on Monday 7th December 2009 on Search and Destroy Records through PIAS as a digital download only.

The digital bundle consists of  ‘A City on Fire’ radio version, an instrumental version and a Frankmusik remix.  There is also a fantastic version of Don McLean’s “Vincent”.

Previous singles ‘The English Way’, ‘Never Change’ and ‘Mercury Summer’ have already connected with fans old and new across the country, pushing FIGHTSTAR’s MySpace song plays to over 3 million and the No 1 spot on the MTV2 MySpace video chart, whilst the band’s intimate cover of Jordin Spark’s ‘Battlefield’ won over Radio 1 listeners on Jo Wiley’s Live Lounge.

“’A City On Fire’ highlights the rat race that tends to surround daily life in London town,” explains singer Charlie Simpson. “It also touches on the dramatic big brother tendencies that have been increasingly encroaching on our privacy- on an average day in London you will be filmed by over 300 CCTV cameras! This song has both positive and negative messages. I have lived in London for almost ten years now and I think it is a truly inspiring city, though at times its relentless nature can become overwhelming.”

Before heading out on their biggest ever U.K. headline tour at the end of the month, FIGHTSTAR spent the day at XFM recording tracks for Steve Harris ‘An Evening With...’. The tour will cover 12 shows over three weeks, including a sold out homecoming show at Shepherds Bush Empire, and a trip over to Ireland to play Belfast and Dublin.

HEADLINE TOUR DATES 2009

Oct 21   Cambridge Junction

Oct 22   Exeter Lemon Grove
Oct 23   Oxford Academy 2
Oct 25   Glasgow Barrowlands

Oct 26   Newcastle University
Oct 27   Manchester Academy 2
Oct 30   Birmingham O2 Academy
Oct 31   London Shepherds Bush Empire
Nov 2     Portsmouth Pyramids
Nov 3     Leeds Met University

Nov 5     Dublin Academy 2
Nov 6     Belfast Spring and Airbrake

Check out the band at www.fightstarmusic.com

*not included on CD

BOWLING FOR SOUP SET TO RELEASE THEIR TENTH STUDIO RELEASE

‘SORRY FOR PARTYIN'’ ON OCTOBER 12th, 2009

www.myspace.com/bowlingforsoup  |  www.mywena.com/wenaface  |  www.twitter.com/bfsrocks  |  www.sorryforpartyin.co.uk

Bowling For Soup announces the release of their tenth studio-effort, ‘Sorry For Partyin'’ on A&G Records in the UK on 12th October. The Denton, TX natives return with their new single and video ‘My Wena’ that showcases their one-of-a-kind brand of fun-pop/punk.  

The single ‘My Wena’ is a hilarious love song that only Bowling For Soup could pull off.  With their trademark style of tongue in cheek lyrics, ‘My Wena’ is filled with double entendre references about the singer's girlfriend, Wena. The video is equally hilarious and to celebrate its release, head over to the special application that allows you to become a part of the official music video for yourself – www.mywena.com/wenaface. Or pick a person of your choice as the Wena Face!

The Grammy nominated quartet of singer/guitarist Jaret Reddick, guitarist Chris Burney, bassist Erik Chandler and drummer Gary Wiseman will also release their tenth full length album in October – ‘Sorry For Partyin’’. Bowling For Soup have sold millions of albums worldwide during their career to date. As well as selling millions of albums and getting airplay on TV and radio stations across the world for the past 15 years they’ve been a band, Bowling For Soup have appeared in a number of films and their music has been used in countless popular TV programs including Malcolm In The Middle, Eastenders, Strictly Come Dancing, American Idol and My Name Is Earl.

The band have toured tirelessly throughout their career playing a total of over 3,000 shows so far and sharing the stage with the likes of Avril Lavigne, Kiss, Aerosmith, Blink 182, Good Charlotte, Linkin Park, Black Sabbath, Metallica and even Britney Spears! Tickets are now on sale for their Party In Your Pants UK Tour 2009 that kicks off October 17th in Glasgow, Scotland.  Dates in Japan, Australia and the U.S. will follow later this year and into 2010.

Party In Your Pants UK Tour 2009:

Sat October 17            Glasgow Academy                   Glasgow, Scotland

Sun October 18            Newcastle Academy                 Newcastle

Tue October 20            Cambridge Corn Exchange       Cambridge

Wed October 21          Margate Winter Gardens          Margate

Thu October 22            Birmingham Academy               Birmingham

Fri October 23             Sheffield Academy                    Sheffield

Sat October 24            Leicester Demontfort Hall         Leicester

Sun October 25            Manchester Academy               Manchester

Mon October 26          Exeter Great Hall                      Exeter

Wed October 28          Bournemouth Opera House      Bournemouth

Thu October 29            London Roundhouse                 London

RAMMSTEIN RAMM-IXED!

ROBB FLYNN FROM MACHINE HEAD BOLDLY GOES WHERE MESHUGGAH, THE PET SHOP BOYS AND OTHERS HAVE GONE BEFORE…

IT HAS been confirmed that the iTunes version of the new/sixth Rammstein studio album, ‘Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da’, set for release in the UK on October 19th via Spinefarm Records UK, will contain an exclusive Remix of the track “Rammlied” handled by Robb Flynn, guitarist/vocalist with US heavyweights Machine Head.
 
In the past, Rammstein have had songs Remixed by a whole variety of artists, ranging from Laibach, Meshuggah & Alec Empire right through to the Pet Shop Boys, Vince Clarke & Junkie XL!
 
It is quite rare for Rammstein to take on Remix projects for other artists, although drummer Christoph Schneider did rework a Rob Zombie track for the ‘American Made Music To Strip By’ album (1999).
 
Rammstein have confirmed three UK arena shows for February 2010, with a second single – the follow-up to current outing ‘Pussy’ – looking likely for early December of this year.

RAMMSTEIN REVEAL NEW MEMBERS!

DELUXE VERSION OF LATEST ALBUM AN X-RATED X-MAS WARMER

HAVING ALREADY sent shock waves through the music (and non-music) world with the video for current single “Pussy”, surely the most explicit promo clip ever made by a stadium-level act, the Berlin sextet are certain to ruffle even more feathers with the Deluxe format of new/sixth studio album ‘Liebe Ist Für Alle Da’.
 
Images of the format – a metal flight-case containing six pink dildos, hand-cuffs, lubricating cream plus a copy of the Special Edition of the album, complete with five bonus tracks – have already been circulating unofficially on the internet, but it can finally be confirmed that this ultra high-end version of ‘Liebe Ist…’ is set to go into manufacture, with delivery expected this side of Christmas.
 
Whether the six dildos are modelled on the assets of the various band members is yet to be confirmed, but word is that giant frontman Till Lindemann’s contribution has been making it hard for the box to close without a reinforced catch!
 
The standard and special formats of the album will be released on October 19th via Spinefarm Records UK.
 
Rammstein will play three UK arena shows in February 2010.

THE SILENT YEARS

Album ‘The Globe’ to be released 19th October, 2009

Free download of album track ‘Know Your Place’ available now

"The Silent Years may be the best indie rock band in the country" - Spin.com

“The Globe succeeds in displaying genuine diversity with sufficient distinctiveness to cut its own niche.”

– NME

www.myspace.com/thesilentyears  |  www.twitter.com/thesilentyears

FREE DOWNLOAD - http://www.giftmusic.uk.com/download.php?title=TheSilentYears-KnowYourPlace-GiftMusic

Michael Majewski – bass  |  Ryan Clancy – drums  |  Josh Epstein - vocals, guitars, production  |  Cassandra Verras – keyboards, violins  |  Fabian Halabou – guitar

The Silent Years’ forthcoming album ‘The Globe’ will be released in the UK on 19th October, 2009.‘The Globe’ certainly represented a sea of change for The Silent Years on multiple levels. For frontman Epstein The Globe was a challenging album: It was the first outing for a new line up of The Silent Years, as Epstein was able to recruit three-fifths of the line-up from Detroit indie rock legends Rescue to join his project; and the album was based around a prevailing concept of recognizing the universality of life. 'The Globe' title is itself a metaphor at play, a symbol of scale in each direction, as the songs shift naturally from the microscopic to the universal.

The Silent Years formed in Detroit in late 2005. Like so much great music, theirs is the product of the suburbs – music that dreams of others places. Music that begins in a basement but takes you on a journey far, far away. Music as escape – music as a narrative.

In four short years they have taken the US underground by storm and now look set to do the same in Britain and beyond. The Silent Years are part of that great US underground tradition that every now and again produces innovative bands capable of soundtracking lives and shaping generations – comparisons to Mercury Rev, The Shins, Arcade Fire or Fleet Foxes would not be completely misleading. Nor for that matter would a passing nod to the elemental pastoral vistas of Doves or British Sea Power. Inspiration-wise, The Silent Years don’t mind admitting to drawing inspiration from “the classics – band’s whose music has proven itself to have lasting worth.” That would be people like The Beatles, Beach Boys and Paul Simon and more recently Jeff Buckley and Radiohead.  And about a thousand others.

Which isn’t to say The Silent Years (whose name was inspired by a former member’s time at mime school) are backward-looking retro-heads either. They’re not. At all. Because this band offer more than alt-rock simulacra; they are not a band living on borrowed ideas. Heck no. One listen to their second album The Globe should clear up any doubts. First released and rightly-lauded in the US in 2008, The Globe is a concept album about all the things that intelligent, literate twenty-something modern men and women concern themselves with. The Big Ideas, if you like.

“The notion that inspired the concept was the idea or theory that everything that exists probably exists everywhere,” explains articulate twenty-seven year old frontman and founding member Josh Epstein. “So the album is an attempt to explore man’s place in the scheme of things and the reason for his existence. Obviously that question never gets answered. But just exploring the possibilities of where and why was interesting enough.”

Such grand declarations are a typical of a band whose frontman was touring in other bands at the age of fifteen with guys ten years his senior. An education in itself. Josh Epstein was no teen drop-out either – after returning to school, he then went to university on a football (that would be soccer) scholarship, while also studying literature and poetry. There were no rock star ambitions then as there aren’t now; just to make music is enough.

From the band’s formation in 2005 with four core members – their line-up is somewhat fluid and has been known to feature anything up to eighteen musicians on stage – things moved quickly. The Silent Years’ self-titled, self-produced debut album was released in 2006 and by 2007 Spin magazine were voting them ‘Underground artists of the year’. Mixed and produced by Chris Coady (Grizzly Bear, TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) over the course of one intense month, The Globe followed, as did much road work, including a UK tour that was somewhat fraught when a band member had to depart on the first date due to bereavement. But The Silent Years battled through and laid the foundations for their return visit in late 2009.

And all the while the members of the band have been responsible for every aspect of what it means to be a creative collective: from creating their own artwork to booking tours; from to humping gear to releasing their own records. Unlike many bands that let that DIY ethos slide once they get a taste of success however, they’re becoming even more involved than ever. “The more people hear us, the more we need to stay in control,” says Josh. “This is our art. This is our life.”

While The Globe might be fresh to European ears, The Silent Years are already moving on. In September 2009 they enter a studio to record its follow-up. “The Globe is a record you have to sit down with and commit to listening to, whereas the new record will be one where, if it was on a party, you would have to stop what you were doing to find out who it was by,” says Josh. “It’ll be simpler, but with lots of biblical references. Lyrics matter to us and while I don’t believe in organised religion at all, The Bible is pretty good for lyrical inspiration. John Lennon said that some songs don’t have to mean anything, which is an idea that I’ve only recently been willing to accept.”

That Josh and the revolving line-up that comprises The Silent Years are music obsessives is undeniable. Aside from band duties, members are also currently writing and producing for other artists, writing children’s books, making electronic music and, in Josh Epstein’s case, working on a Broadway production and becoming involved in a project that is attempting to re-unite The Funk Brothers in legendry Detroit studio Hitsville USA.

Bizarre – yes. Boring? Never. That’s The Silent Years.

DEAD CONFEDERATE

DEBUT Album ‘WRECKING BALL’ RELEASED 9th NOVEMBER

 (KARTEL)

www.myspace.com/deadconfederate

"Artist to watch... When they hit full howl, Dead Confederate are the living end” – Rolling Stone

After the success of their Spring tour with A Place To Bury Strangers and recent shows supporting Dinosaur Jr on a run of UK/European dates, mind-blowing psych-rock five piece Dead Confederate have announced a UK release for their incredible debut album. Entitled ‘Wrecking Ball’, it will finally be unleashed over here on November 9th through Kartel.

Atlanta, Georgia 2006 and a local five-piece consisting of friends tight since their school days are sick of being local. They’re sick of coasting. Sick of the jobs that barely keep them in guitar strings and barely cover their graduate debts. Sick of being little more than a jam band. So they take decisive action. They move to Athens, Georgia, they change their name, grow an exotic range of facial hair and they get serious. Dead serious.

Within eighteen months the newly-named Dead Confederate had found their voice via the new clutch music by songwriters Hardy Morris and Brantley Senn - a stirring combination of searing alt-rock with traces of timeless Americana and the darkest of country and heaviest of psychedelia buried in there too. They had built a fresh fan base from scratch and experienced that lucky break that can so often be the difference between greatness and obscurity.

It was while being picked up at an airport that former A&R man / Capitol Records boss Gary Gersh - who in signing Sonic Youth and Nirvana to Geffen in the early 90s effectively made underground alternative rock a mainstream concern for the first time – heard Dead Confederate demo’s playing on his friend’s car stereo. A few meetings later and the band were signed to his label The Artist Organization, their self-titled EP following soon after in 2008. Dead Confederate were up and running and haven’t paused for breath since.

Shows with the likes of Black Lips and Deerhunter followed, but it was their appearance supporting fellow Athens band REM at South By South West 2008 that made Dead Confederate one of the most talked about new bands in the US. The Daily Telegraph dubbed them as “a hairy American Radiohead” and while there are certainly shades of early Thom Yorke and co, we can hear Nirvana, Mudhoney, My Morning Jacket, Lift To Experience, early Pink Floyd, Screaming Trees, Drive-By Truckers and Soul Asylum lurking deep within their widescreen musical vistas – music that simultaneously stabs the heart and kisses your cheek.

And so the real hard work began. In early 2008 Dead Confederate hit the studio to make their debut album. Recorded over a month in Austin, Texas with producer Mike McCarthy (Spoon, …Trail Of Dead) in the latter band’s miniscule rehearsal space-cum-garage (“It was about the size of an average hotel room,” laughs Senn) on ancient recording equipment, it was the culmination of ten years of work.

‘Wrecking Ball’ was the result and its release in September 2008 sent Dead Confederate spinning across America with their spiritual noise-fathers Dinosaur Jr then over to Europe with like-minded newcomers A Place To Bury Strangers in a touring cycle that hasn’t ended yet.

In late 2008 Dead Confederate dipped a foot into the big time when they appeared on Late Night With Conan O’Brien. Aside from reaching the living rooms of America perhaps more importantly they showed to their parents that there was potential in this here rock business after all and that their college degrees - Dead Confederate are an academic and highly literate band - weren’t taken in vain. The lesson learned? Never, ever give up. Or maybe: build it and they shall come.

In early 2009 the quintet scored a Top 40 US hit with ‘The Rat’ - not bad for a protest song against the religious right - before they recently embarked upon another European tour with Dinosaur Jr then segueing straight into a tour with another legendry alt-rock band, Meat Puppets.

It all begins to make sense when you see Dead Confederate live.  Propelled by the crushing drums of Jason Scarboro, eccentric guitar work from Walker Howle, and ambient organ sounds via John "J5" Watkins....The band's shows carry the torch for all the great hirsute underground freaks of the 80s and early 90s...yet Dead Confederate are a band that could only have been shaped by the 21st century.  Their wall of sound could be taken as a giant metaphor for modern America itself: simultaneously expansive, emotive, affable, troubled, paranoid, confused, confident, complex and resolutely dark of heart. As their moniker suggests, however, the only flag this band is waving is for themselves and their kind: the freaks, the forgotten, the hard bitten anti-heroes and the volume junkies. 

By autumn of 2009 Dead Confederate’s beards and moustaches were out of control and their eyes squinting a thousand yards into the distance. The road can do that to you. There was only one thing left to do: retreat to the studio to record an album that would push them out of the trenches over the top. Which is exactly what they are doing. Watch this space then, and in the meantime enjoy the full European release of ‘Wrecking Ball’, Dead Confederate’s first calling card to the world.

CONVERGE’S AXE TO FALL ON OCTOBER 19, 2009

Essential Hardcore Outfit Announces New Album – available in full for streaming at www.myspace.com/converge now!!! 

www.convergecult.com | www.myspace.com/converge | www.epitaph.com/artists/artist/150/Converge  |  www.twitter.com/convergecult

Pre-order - http://www.bandstores.co.uk/shop/converge/

“You won’t find this much energy in a nuclear reactor.” – Kerrang! (KKKK)

“Whichever way they choose to batter, gouge or hack away at you, the music rises and falls with fluid ease and mind-boggling invention, bringing new ideas to previously-trod ground and constantly pushing the edges of the very parameters the band themselves helped lay.” – Rocksound (9 / 10)

 Groundbreaking hardcore-metal band Converge will release their long anticipated new studio album, Axe To Fall, on October 19 via Epitaph (vinyl on Deathwish).  Considered one of the most intense, important, and influential metal/hardcore bands ever, Converge continue their uncompromising evolution, experimenting and manipulating the fiercest form of music with the most aggressive album of the year, Axe To Fall. 

Fitting like a puzzle piece in their all but flawless catalog, Axe To Fall is an undeniable progression in the band’s canon of cacophonous sound, dexterous skill and ingenious art, as thirteen of the most viciously powerful songs Converge has ever written reign down on listeners in a surge of sonic fury.  True to their meticulous DIY style, guitarist Kurt Ballou helmed production duties once again from his infamous GodCity studios in Salem, MA. 

Without warning, Converge lets their metal flag fly on Axe To Fall when drummer Ben Koller’s galloping beats meet Ballou’s lightning fast riffs as bassist Nate Newton provides a pummeling backbone and vocalist Jacob Bannon takes command with menacing growls on the album’s shattering opener “Dark Horse.”  Perhaps Converge’s heaviest music they’ve ever recorded, the foursome invited a slew friends to contribute to the album, and the result was a wall of metal-infused hardcore on a level that’s never been heard before. 

Songs like the hardcore pit-swirling ‘Effigy’ (feat. Steve Brodsky/Lead guitar, Adam McGrath/Guitar, J.R. Connors/Drums), the furiously relentless neck-breaker ‘Wishing Well’ (feat. Ulf Cederlund/Lead guitar/backing vocals) and the blazing thrash-track ‘Cutter’ (feat. John Pettibone/backing vocals) keep the album moving with power and energy.  As defiant as ever, Bannon roars through songs about despair and self-indulgent choices warning that “we'll show the demons for what they are.”  As the album comes to a close it takes a doom-ridden turn as Neurosis’ Steve Von Till shares vocal duties with Bannon on the brooding track ‘Cruel Bloom’ and Genghis Tron’s Mookie Singerman providing lead vocals on the beautifully dark post-metal album closer ‘Wretched World.’

After 19 years as a band, Converge still maintain the steadfast individuality and uncompromising artistic vision they had when they formed.  The band has been credited with giving rise to a genre of music and influencing bands worldwide, yet by never wavering have created a sound that is entirely their own. 

Prepare yourself for the year’s most vicious album, Axe To Fall.

WHITE BELT YELLOW TAG
www.myspace.com/whitebeltyellowtag | www.distiller-records.com
‘REMAINS EP’RELEASED OCTOBER 19TH
 (Distiller Records)

“The artistic solemnity of Elbow or Doves” – NME
“An impressive effort, with the spirit of early Echo & The Bunnymen providing the firepower” – Daily Mirror
“A rare thrill to behold” – The Fly

White Belt Yellow Tag have announced details of the release of a new EP, ‘Remains’, out on Monday October 19th 2009 through Distiller Records. Self-produced and mixed by Chris Potter (The Verve, Blur).

Brooding and with a Krautrock klang, ‘Remains’, will be available on limited 7” (with CD of tracks enclosed) and download. It features the B-sides ‘Control, Designs & Innovations’, a cover of the Wedding Present’s ‘Dalliance’ plus the download will also feature two remixes from Losers (Eddy Temple-Morris and Tom Bellamy of The Cooper Temple Clause).

Essentially the creation of Justin Lockey (ex Yourcodenameis:Milo) and Craig Pilbin, White Belt Yellow Tag  formed just over a year ago having met in Newcastle. Lockey had built up a reputation as one of the UK’s leading new band producers having worked with White Lies, Late Of The Pier and Get Cape Wear Cape Fly and the pair met when Pilbin was looking for someone to work with on a number songs he had written.

‘Remains’ is taken from the band’s recently recorded debut album ‘Methods’, an amazingly far-reaching and beguiling record. The pair’s song-writing nouse and Lockey’s “sonic alchemy” have combined to create something unique where epic wide-screen atmospherics work in harmony with moments of white-noise and fragile beauty.

Methods is due to be released in early 2010, but in the mean time the band will release and tour the incredible ‘Remains EP’ on the following dates:

SEPTEMBER
27th Belfast Speakeasy

OCTOBER
6th Cardiff Barfly
7th London Roundhouse Studio
8th Manchester Ruby Lounge
9th Leeds Cockpit
11th York Fibbers
12th Glasgow King Tuts